What are the historical roots of using technology to manage one's personal knowledge?
The idea of keeping a Personal Knowledge Base as a springboard for creative work is not at all new. Students during the Enlightenment were taught to keep sequential records of their studies called "Commonplace Books" using the technology of their time: Pen and paper. Later, as scholars of this period were overwhelmed by the explosion of knowledge suddenly available after the invention of the printing press, many continued to nurture their own commonplace book by collecting excerpts from others' publications as a running record of their thoughts and the thoughts of others. Scholars such as Erazmus, Bacon, and Milton considered these books as central to their own study and essential springboards for creative thought. John Locke published instructions for maintaining and indexing these collections. The idea of keeping a cumulative record of one's research, observations, and ideas is still alive and well in the sciences where laboratory notebooks are kept and can serve as evidence in case of litigation. A representation of a commonplace cabinet, or literary chest, of the period containing cards containing individually indexed commonplaces is is shown below.
A Literary Chest of Commonplaces circa 1689
What about knowledge management in present day?
Ironically, the spector of another information explosion that was going to result from the invention of digital information storage foreseen by another scientist in the 1940s. In 1946, the science adviser to President Roosevelt, Vanavar Bush, understood that it was only a matter of time before all of the world's knowledge would be available to individuals and that people would need technology to help them cope. In his essay, As We May Think, he proposed the development of the Memex machine which was basically a mental prosthetic that would allow scientists to review a body of literature efficiently.
What about commonplace books for students?
It is not clear why these practices fell by the wayside for the general student. Current school models are largely based on age-graded levels, i.e. K-12, and generally do not address the need for students to "keep" knowledge from year to year. Perhaps the reliance on textbooks that characterized schooling in the 20th century also led teachers and students to recognize that information can easily be "looked up" and therefore a cumulative memory aid was not necessary.
The idea of keeping a Personal Knowledge Base as a springboard for creative work is not at all new. Students during the Enlightenment were taught to keep sequential records of their studies called "Commonplace Books" using the technology of their time: Pen and paper. Later, as scholars of this period were overwhelmed by the explosion of knowledge suddenly available after the invention of the printing press, many continued to nurture their own commonplace book by collecting excerpts from others' publications as a running record of their thoughts and the thoughts of others. Scholars such as Erazmus, Bacon, and Milton considered these books as central to their own study and essential springboards for creative thought. John Locke published instructions for maintaining and indexing these collections. The idea of keeping a cumulative record of one's research, observations, and ideas is still alive and well in the sciences where laboratory notebooks are kept and can serve as evidence in case of litigation. A representation of a commonplace cabinet, or literary chest, of the period containing cards containing individually indexed commonplaces is is shown below.
What about knowledge management in present day?
Ironically, the spector of another information explosion that was going to result from the invention of digital information storage foreseen by another scientist in the 1940s. In 1946, the science adviser to President Roosevelt, Vanavar Bush, understood that it was only a matter of time before all of the world's knowledge would be available to individuals and that people would need technology to help them cope. In his essay, As We May Think, he proposed the development of the Memex machine which was basically a mental prosthetic that would allow scientists to review a body of literature efficiently.
What about commonplace books for students?
It is not clear why these practices fell by the wayside for the general student. Current school models are largely based on age-graded levels, i.e. K-12, and generally do not address the need for students to "keep" knowledge from year to year. Perhaps the reliance on textbooks that characterized schooling in the 20th century also led teachers and students to recognize that information can easily be "looked up" and therefore a cumulative memory aid was not necessary.
References
Burnett, D. G. (2008). Four Leaves from a Commonplace Book. The Underground Summer, 30. Retrieved from http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/30/burnett.php
Bush, V. (1945, July). As We May Think. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/?single_page=true
Vincent Placcius. (1689). De Arte Excerpendi. Courtesy of Houghton Library